Isobelle Carmody is one of Australia's most highly acclaimed authors of fantasy. At fourteen, she began Obernewtyn, the first book in her much-loved Obernewtyn Chronicles, and has since written many works in this genre. Her novel The Gathering was joint winner of the 1993 Children's Literature Peace Prize and the 1994 CBCA Book of the Year Award, and Greylands was joint winner of the 1997 Aurealis Award for Excellence in Speculative Fiction (Young Adult category), and was named a White Raven at the 1998 Bologna Children's Book Fair.

Isobelle's work for younger readers includes her two series, The Legend of Little Fur, and The Kingdom of the Lost, the first book of which, The Red Wind, won the CBCA Book of the Year Award for Younger Readers in 2011. She has also written several picture books as well as collections of short stories for children, young adults and adults.

After living in Europe for more than a decade, these days Isobelle divides her time in Australia between her home on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, and Brisbane, where she is working on a PhD at the University of Queensland. She lives with her partner and daughter, and a shadow-black cat called Mitya.

Anne Spudvilas is a multi-award-winning illustrator of children's books and an established portrait painter and printmaker. Her first picture book, The Race by Christobel Mattingley, was awarded the Crichton Award for Illustration and was a CBCA Honour Book.

Her bestselling books include The Peasant Prince by Li Cunxin, which won the NSW and Queensland Premiers' Awards in 2008 and Jenny Angel by Margaret Wild which was CBCA Picture Book of the Year in 2000.

Anne's move to the Murray River has inspired her latest book, an illustrated retelling of the classic ballet story Swan Lake. Anne lives in Wentworth, where the Murray and Darling rivers meet, surrounded by birds and river red gums.